WASHINGTON – JULY 26: Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., walks back to his office … [+]
Media is fixated on age at the moment and not in a positive way. U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein, a Democrat representing California, struggles to effectively serve after suffering encephalitis and Ramsay Hunt syndrome following a bout with shingles. She now shares the spotlight with Senator Mitch McConnell, a Republican from Kentucky, after he froze mid-sentence during a news conference earlier this week.
Both are longtime public servants, and neither seems ready to leave office, which begs the question–when should a member of Congress step down?
Although Congress has been asked to consider age or term limits, not only are those actions fraught with challenges, they will not eliminate the possibility of future Feinsteins and McConnells.
Age ≠ Ability
The biggest problem with setting an age limit, is that age does not equal ability. People age differently. That means the mental acuity of one 90-year-old cannot predict the mental acuity of anyone else at the same age.
Moreover, age limits don’t exist in Congress because members have never been willing to limit the possibility of their service.
Finally, how can we reliably measure mental acuity without political influence or motivation?
Private Sector versus Public Service
In the private sector, words and phrases describing physical and mental capacity, short-term memory gap and confused might be considered abusive, which is enough to create a hostile work environment under the law. Public servants, however, must endure public scrutiny and the protections afforded private sector employees do not extend to them.
As a result, older politicians are often the focus of partisan and public ageist and ableist remarks, which, regardless of their actual mental and physical condition, hurt all of us.
Ageism is when someone is judged based on how old they are. Ableism is when someone is judged based on assumptions of how their mind or body functions. The reality is that plenty of younger people live with disabilities, and plenty of older people do not.
So, how can we possibly use age to determine who can and cannot serve in a public office?
Defying Historical Patterns?
On her blog, gerontologist and educator Jeanette Leardi argues that it’s not a valid claim that elders run our country or even that they shouldn’t.
“Throughout Western history, the men (yes, it was always men) in charge of the government were usually as old, if not older, than the average age of life expectancy at birth for their time. In ancient Greece, for example, where life expectancy was 25 to 30 years old, an Athenian man had to be 20 to be a full-fledged citizen and 30 to be admitted to the council and the court jury pool; in Sparta, which elected its kings, a man had to be at least 60–twice the expectancy age.”
Leardi also reminds us the average age of the members of the 1775 Continental Congress was 44, while the average life expectancy at birth was between 35 and 40.
“Given these examples, it appears that 21st-century American government has defied the pattern, with its groups’ averages a decade or two younger than that of the current life expectancy,” she writes.
A Way Forward
There is no easy solution to address the health and wellness of elected officials or alleged illnesses that might prevent them from service–not even age or term limits.
Forbes’ political staffer Sara Dorn writes, “Instilling age- and term-limits is also a logistically complicated process that would likely require a constitutional amendment, which would need either the votes of two-thirds of both the Senate and the House, followed by approval from three-fourths of state legislatures, or a request from two-thirds of states followed by a constitutional convention in which three-fourths of states must ratify the amendment.”
Term limits, while more practical, will not ensure a solution either. After all, when Feinstein was last elected by the state of California in 2018, she was already well into her 80s. Moreover, people of any age can fall and incur a concussion rendering long-term effects.
It seems we are left where we started–relying on the individual to decide for themself when their term is up.
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